Lonely Sand
by Vampire Toy
Summary: Sakura and her class go on a field trip to the Hidden Sand but without friends, she’s alone….or at least she thinks she is. (Just a cute one-shot from her childhood)


Lonely Sand

By: Vampire Toy

PG

Disclaimer: No me own ;;

Summary: Sakura and her class go on a field trip to the Hidden Sand but without friends, she's alone….or at least she thinks she is. (Just a cute one-shot)

(Takes place in childhood if you haven't already guessed :D)

At first the thought of a field trip was exciting to her; a new village to explore with her new friend. It was part of a program set up for young students in the ninja academy to go see other places. It was a long trip to another village but it was also going to be the children's first campout where they would learn how to manage on their own or in teams later on. They would travel for a week or two, spending very little time in each village. It was mostly a trip to help the children with learning to 'rough it' by sleeping outside in a different place every night.

Despite all this, Sakura began feeling dread towards the trip. She had one friend only and she was beginning to come down with some type of a sickness. As the days up to the trip neared, Sakura knew that Ino would not be joining her.

Sakura wondered if maybe she could fake sickness too, so she could stay home and play with Ino, but she knew that Ino's parent's probably wouldn't let them play together if they were both sick. Her parent's would say they needed sleep and medicine.

So Sakura went on the trip with all the other girls and boys and senseis. She stayed quiet and aloof so the other's would have less of a chance to make fun of her ….because without Ino, they would definitely try. She camped and collected wood and did everything the other kids did, but without anyone to walk with or talk with or sit with. She was glad they didn't have tents because then they'd have to share, and she was sure no one would want to share with her.

The next evening after eating and packing, they proceeded into the Sand Village. Sakura had heard a little about this place, mostly that it was just as the name stated; sand.

Sakura made a face and flopped against a rock as the other children scattered out through the sandy playing field. She let out a tired sigh; they'd been walking since morning and the desert sun was making her sweaty and drowsy. She listened to the other children have fun even after the long walk.

(What makes them able to play after such a long walk?) She sighed and hung her head (I know why, because they are stronger than you Sakura, and because they have friends)

She leaned back on the rock and closed her eyes, but soon she began coughing on the grains of sand that would blow into her face. Her eyes opened, her face plastered with an annoyance. She pulled her knees up to her chest and lowered her head to limit the sand that crept into her face, hair, and clothes.

(I miss you Ino-chan, I wish I were strong like you…..so I wouldn't have to be this way….) She looked around her to see if she could find anything to do; after all, the desert wouldn't let her sleep, so she had to do SOMETHING in the hours before they had to leave again.

She spotted a dried up stick and grabbed it; it must have been from the nearby forest, the desert DID, after all, border with a forest. It was probably blown here from a sandstorm, but it didn't matter; she had something to do.

The stick dragged through the sand and soon she formed a picture of a sad stick figure. She peered down and it. (Well being bored is better than being picked on…..being alone is better than a lot of bad attention...) she suddenly heard scraping, as if someone else was drawing in the sand in front of her. She looked down again and, to her amazement, found another stick figure, only this one was a happy one and was holding the hand of the sad one.

(What! I didn't draw that….who could be so fast that I wouldn't see them drawing!)

She drew a cloud quickly to see if another picture would be drawn alongside it. Sure enough, right in front of her eyes, a sun appeared.

(I was looking right at it and didn't see the person draw! So they must be either really fast or invisible! But who are they? Why are they doing this? Maybe they're lonely like me….)

Sakura stared at the drawings a moment before tentatively writing 'Hi' in the sand to see if she'd get another response. She smiled when a reply appeared with a smiley face.

(Maybe this wont be so bad….)

After a few hours Sakura was laughing and giggling and having more fun than she even had with Ino! The conversation with her mystery friend had started out somewhat depressing; they shared about their family and about their friends. Sakura found out that this person's mother was dead and the father wasn't around much. She could relate, and she told him. She told the sand that her parents weren't around a lot either and that her only friend was sick and couldn't accompany her on this long trip.

After sharing so much, Sakura wanted to make the mood lighter and drew silly pictures and so did the sand. She was so happy that she'd made another friend, even if she couldn't see her new friend…..even if he wasn't really there.

"Alright everyone! It's time to go! Tomorrow we should be getting to the Hidden Mist!"

Sakura's head shot up at the sound of her sensei's voice and frowned at the news.

(Hidden Mist? There's nothing but fish and water there! I wanna stay here….)

She heard another shout and sighed, quickly scribbling 'I have to leave now, what's your name?' in the sand; if this new friend was a real person, perhaps she could come back to visit him one day….

She watched as the sand began forming letters to a name, first a 'G' then an 'A'….

"SAKURA! We're leaving right now! Come or we're leaving without you!"

"Uh?"

(No! I'll never get his name! Well he should at least know mine!) Sakura grabbed the stick again and frantically wrote her goodbye message before fleeing after her retreating class.

"NOOO DON'T LEAVE ME!"

She stumbled over herself into the small crowd descending into the dark desert sunset. She looked back once; a sad and diminishing frantic look on her face. She turned back when realizing her class was moving even faster and ran again to catch up.

There was a pause as if the sand was reading her hurried message

'My name's Sakura, but I have to go now, so I'll miss you a lot, bye!'

The sand seemed almost overly patient, as it finished its own message.

'GAARA….goodbye'

Another pause then a shadow suddenly loomed over the writings in the sand. A young boy with a tuft of red hair on his round head, stood looking down at the scribbles. His sleep deprived eyes scanned lightly, smiling slightly at the heart that was drawn next to Sakura's message. He looked up in the direction she'd fled and his face fell longingly.

"Goodbye Sakura….I'll miss you too…"

Vampire Toy: And after that when Sakura told Ino about it Ino poked her forehead and told her 'Don't be stupid, sand doesn't just write itself, you spent too much time in the sun. They were only illusions cause you were dehydrated.' XP

Okieeee, so the idea for the trip's purpose was bad, but I had to do something logical because I can't stand it when people don't explain things and just say 'So Sakura went on a trip to the sand village for one day then went back to the leaf' because that's not possible, it takes days to get into the actual civilized part of a village...eh.…my terrible little rant.

Anywhoo, this idea came during spring break when I couldn't sleep for days; so behold the product of late nights and early mornings. I drew it in comic form first so converting it to story format was a little harder. It's easier to go from story to comic XD well you can find the comic (I guess it'd be a like a doujinshi?) version of this story at my art site kikikun. or if the link doesn't show, just e-mail me. R&R & Flames welcome.


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